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What is shifting are the targets — immigrants with valid visas and legal status. In Ms. Ozturk's case, supporters say she appears to have merely been a co-author of an editorial in a student newspaper criticizing Tufts's support for Israel.
"I think it's a First Amendment violation," Ms. Fleischaker said. "ICE had a policy in place that said that First Amendment activity was not to be the basis of enforcement action. That's not why you enforce."
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said investigators with Homeland Security and ICE "found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right." She did not offer evidence or details of that support.
Ms. Ozturk’s arrest this week is only the latest, and most public. In February, federal agents in bulky hoodies, who did not appear to have badges hanging from their necks, raided a taco truck in Memphis and arrested three undocumented Mexican workers.
A lawyer in New Britain, Conn., said he had been giving a Polish client a ride home from court last month when his car was boxed in by several pickup trucks and S.U.V.s. Federal agents in black ski masks leaped out, accused his client of overstaying a visa and arrested him for deportation, he said.
“I don’t know why they needed such a show of force,” said Adrian Baron, the lawyer. “It came off to me like political theater, a lot of overkill.”
In New York City, the wife of a pro-Palestinian protest leader frantically asked for the name of an agent arresting her husband, Mahmoud Khalil. She was told, “We don’t give our name.” The agents declined to say which agency they were with, and told Mr. Khalil’s wife only that her husband was being taken into immigration custody in downtown Manhattan.
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